“Fools’ names and fools’ faces”

“Fools’ names and fools’ faces,” my mother would sometimes remind me, “are often seen in public places.”

I haven’t mentioned this here (or anywhere else) before but, now that I discover that it has already been publicly announced, I suppose that I should say something.  Certainly I should express my gratitude to Scott Gordon and John Lynch and the others involved at FairMormon:

2019 FairMormon Lifetime Achievement Award

I wasn’t kidding when I said that I was sitting in the back of the room only half listening (if that) to what I assumed was a fairly routine business announcement.  And then, gradually, I became aware of what was going on.  (I’m glad that I did.  Otherwise, I would have looked even more blitheringly stupid than I soon did, blinking like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.)

The only notice that I’ve seen elsewhere of this award came at the Peterson Obsession Board, where they follow my various crimes, misdemeanors, lies, cruelties, humiliations, and defeats with far more meticulous attention than I myself give to the subject.  (It was only from the Obsession Board that I learned about the link above.)  Even they said almost nothing, though; such things that might tend to put me in a positive light are better passed over in silence, with eyes averted.  One commenter, however, did observe that, based on our body language, John Lynch and Scott Gordon and I seem to dislike each other very much.  (If that’s so, of course, John and Scott could simply have not given me the award.  Nobody expected it.  Least of all yours truly.)

That commenter’s speculation is, of course, wrong.  I’ve known and liked Scott and John for a couple of decades now.  The awkwardness — and there was some, most definitely — came from the fact that I was caught totally by surprise and that I was somewhat embarrassed both by the award and by the surprising emotion that hit me upon receiving it.  I didn’t know what to say.

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Incidentally, speaking of public displays of, well, me, I watched the new two-hour HLN documentary about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping — HLN is CNN’s “Headline News” component — when it had its debut on Sunday night.  I thought it pretty interesting.  And, yes, I did show up in it a few times, in both hours.  I was just a tad disappointed, I’ll admit, that it went over the pretty familiar ground of Elizabeth’s abduction, the search for her, and her rather unexpected recovery, which has has been described before in several books and television movies, but devoted only about ten minutes (or less) to the police interrogation of Brian David Mitchell and to his trial.  That story is interesting in itself, and has been far less frequently told.  (It also happens to be the part of the tale with which I myself was personally involved.  Someday, I guess, I’ll need to briefly write down my own recollections and reflections on it.)